


Passion and Chaos

by LD_Little_Dragon



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
Genre: Action/Adventure, F/M, Humor, almost canon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-10-12
Updated: 2014-11-02
Packaged: 2018-02-20 20:07:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 16,529
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2441354
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LD_Little_Dragon/pseuds/LD_Little_Dragon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Carth knew something was wrong as soon as he got the call to report to Admiral Dodonna's office and receive his new assignment. - a Carth centric look at the events of the first KotOR</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Downtime

**Author's Note:**

> For this story canon is the original movie trilogy, KoTOR 1 and KoTOR 2. I'll consult the Expanded Universe but not too deeply.

  
**Downtime**   


Carth knew something was wrong as soon as he got the call to report to Admiral Dodonna's office and receive his new assignment. No one had to report in person for a routine assignment. _Probably going to stick me behind some desk_ , he thought with a scowl as he reached for the datapad the Admiral handed him.

_Not a dirt-side assignment, at least_ , he thought with some relief as he read though the datapad. His brow furrowed when he finished reading much faster than he expected. He even tried shaking the pad to see if some bug was hiding a second page.

"Is there a problem, Commander Onasi?" Admiral Dodonna asked.

"Advisor position? Under the command of the Jedi. On a classified mission. To parts unknown. This uh, isn't, that is, I thought I would be going back to the front lines with my unit."

"Are you filing a formal refusal to follow orders?"

"What? No, no, of course not. But is Command certain I'm the best man for this job? Whatever it is."

"Yes."

"And I have to go into this blind. There's nothing you can tell me about the nature of this assignment."

"Information will be given on a need to know basis. And you don't need to know at this point."

Carth was a good soldier, but there were times he wished he could tell Command to go suck a rancor. He stood up and saluted. "I understand, Admiral. Will that be all?"

Dodonna sighed and leaned back in her chair. "No, Carth, you don't understand. Just believe me when I tell you this assignment is of the highest importance. The Jedi are up to something dangerous, and we need you to keep an eye on them."

"Yes, Admiral. Will that be all?"

"Not quite," she said. "You haven't left the base in weeks. You need to take some time off, have some fun, do something besides training and paperwork," she pulled a card out from her side pocket. "Here, this leave's on me. Take my expense card and go have some fun."

He took the card reluctantly. "Thank you, Admiral."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The music was loud, most of the patrons wore much too revealing clothes, and the drinks were flowing far too freely for his taste. He would never have come here without being ordered to. Technically he wasn't ordered to visit the cantina, but when your Fleet Commander tells you that you need some downtime, and then tells you to send her your bar tab, well, you had better have a bar tab to send her.

At least this was a cantina that catered to the military, which meant the patrons would leave him alone. Being a decorated hero of the Republic could be a pain in the ass around civilians. No one here would be rude enough to approach him asking for 'war stories'.

"Fleet! Hey, you old son-of-a-zabrak!"

Well, almost no one. He knew that over loud, over cheerful voice. He'd served with Tomak years ago, even before the Mandalorian Wars. They had been through too much together for Carth to get away with ignoring the old bastard. He looked around the floor until he spotted Tomak waving at him from a table by the window.

"Carth!" Tomak said happily when he reached the table. "I didn't think you ever left the base." He stood up and grabbed Carth's arm, pulling him down into the seat beside him. "Sit down, sit down."

Tomak turned and grinned widely at the woman beside him. "We've got a genuine Hero of the Republic with us today. Drink up, and let us all rejoice at our good fortune!"

Carth groaned. "Keep it down you idiot, stop imitating a troop groupie."

"But the excitement, the wonder of it all! The great, the one and only, Carth Onasi is gracing us with his presence! This is unheard of, unprecedented, unbelievable!" Tomak winked. "Seriously, what brings you here? I can't recall the last time you did anything but work around here."

"I was ordered to take some downtime, if you must know," he grumbled. "The Admiral insisted I take her expense card, and now I have to get some credits on it. Anyone need a drink? Feel free to buy the good stuff."

"Oh, you poor man," the woman simpered, fanning herself with one hand. "The life of a soldier is truly one of hardship and despair."

Carth looked her over. Dirty blond hair, as under-dressed as the rest of the patrons, and displaying skin which carried the too smooth and too pale look of someone just out of a Kolto tank. He could see the barely visible outline of a blaster beneath her dark shirt. "And you would be?"

She leaned back and threw her arms out. "I am the best damned advance Scout in the Republic, if not the entire Galaxy! Consurralita Donazar at your service. I'm not kidding about being the best Scout ever, either. You should have seen what this nerf-head offered me to rejoin the Military. Better pay than a Grand Admiral. Between you and me, I was holding out for the offer of my own senatorial seat."

"She's exaggerating. We didn't offer her that many credits," Tomak said.

"He's trying to recruit you? What, has the Republic taken up Sith tactics? Get 'em drunk then sign 'em up?"

"I resent that," Tomak sputtered, waving a glass around. "I'm not trying to recruit Consu anymore. She doesn't want to join up, and this is me admitting it."

"He's been badgering me to re-enlist for days, ever since I got released from the hospital. Practically met me on the doorstep. It took a lot of work, but I finally got him to admit defeat. Poor guy needed a break after beating his head against the rock of Consu for so long, so I brought him here to have a little fun."

"Why won't you stay in the fleet if they need you so much?" Carth said, frowning. "The war's nowhere near ending, and the Republic needs all the good people it can get. If we lose this war than the Sith will plunge the Galaxy into centuries of darkness."

"Now we know why the great Carth Onasi is slumming in the Cantina," Consu said, dropping her head on the table with an audible thump. "No more recruiting, please. I don't wanna fight, and you can't make me. There's got to be someone else you can get. I'm good, and I've been lucky a few times, but I'm not **that** good. I don't know where you guys get your info from but someone really padded my file."

"Whoa now, I'm not here to recruit you, I don't even know you! I just ..."

"Let it go, Carth," Tomak said quietly. "The Lady served her time."

"I spent more than fifteen years serving the Republic," Consu said lifting her head off the table. "On my last mission I ended up as close to death as you can get without actually crossing over. Is it that hard to understand that I woke up a little bit changed? Right now all I want to do is take some time off to have a little fun," She leaned across the table and reached for Carth's expense card. "Speaking of fun, you did mention you wanted to get some credits on this thing. You mind if I borrow it for few minutes? I'm going to go bribe the band to play something better than that head-splitting dreck that's so popular right now."

"Go ahead," Carth said.

"Want to dance?" Consu asked Tomak.

"Oh, hell, no," both Tomak and Carth replied at once. Tomak glared at Carth and then waved Consu off. "Long story, involving a horrendous incident on the dance floor that led to half a destroyed base on Telos back in our raw recruit days. You go ahead and have fun."

"Black Ops?" Carth asked, turning his head to watch Consu make her way towards the bar.

"Don't know, her file is fairly ordinary, but you know that doesn't mean anything," Tomak said. "The Jedi Council wants her for the same hush-hush mission they just roped you into; with those guys that could just mean some Knight saw a vision of Consu after breathing in some meditation fumes."

"What the hell do you know about my current mission," Carth sputtered. He looked around furtively. "And what are you doing bringing it up **here**?"

"Oh please, you think no one would notice when one of our top ships, several men and officers from various units, **and** a bunch of Jedi are being sent on a mission? Half the base knows something's up."

"I didn't know," Carth said sullenly. He leaned forwards and lowered his voice. "You wouldn't happen to have heard any rumours about the specifics of this mission, have you?"

"Sorry," Tomak said. "There's a lot of wild suggestions out there, but none you can put any credits on."

Any further discussion was interrupted by the sound of cheering coming from the bar. Carth twisted to see a crowd mobbing the bartenders. "Now what?"

"I think I heard someone yell 'drinks for everybody'," Tomak said, pointing at Consu who was now dancing on the bar while holding something over her head. Something that looked very much like the Admiral's expense card.

Carth groaned. Tomak slapped him on the back. "At least now the Admiral will believe you when you tell her you had a really good time."

"The Admiral's going to kill me," Carth said when Consu sauntered back. He snatched the expense card from her hand and glared at her.

Consu laughed and sat down in Tomak's lap. "Your friend worries too much," she said, tucking a strand of Tomak's dark hair behind his ear. "Maybe he'll lighten up when the dancers I ordered for this table get here."

"Depends if they're male or female," Tomak said.

"I ordered one of each," Consu replied.

Carth finished his drink, and watched Consu with narrowed eyes. He was trying to decide if it would do any good to scold her, when she suddenly stiffened and frowned.

"Buzz-kill alert," Consu said, hooking an arm possessively around Tomak.

"What?" Tomak said looking around. He spotted three brown-robed Jedi heading their way. "Oh, not to worry, I know Master Kavar and he's one of the better robes, he comes by every once in a while and tries to drink me under the table."

"Evening, Master Kavar," Tomak said when the Jedi reached their table. "Care to join us for a drink?"

"Not tonight, Tomak," Kavar said sorrowfully. "This is business."

"I knew it!" Consu groaned.

"Huh, looks like buzz-kill was the right word," Tomak muttered.

Kavar sat down and smiled brightly at the scowling Consu. "We just want to talk to you, that's all. I'm not sure you understand just how much the Republic needs good Scouts like you."

"I don't think you people understand the meaning of the word no. No, I'm not rejoining. No, I don't care how 'invaluable my expertise is'. No, I don't want to talk anymore. No, I'm not going to stop myself from shooting the next idiot who tries to recruit me."

"Come now, we just want to talk. There's no harm in talking is there?" Kavar said softly. "I'm sorry for ruining your evening, but I'm sure you won't mind giving us a couple of hours of your time."

Consu blinked, and then smiled at Kavar. "I ... I suppose I could give you a couple of hours of my time. There's no harm in talking." She kissed Tomak lightly, and then stood up and sighed. "Sorry I have to cut this short, Tomak, we should do this again sometime. And it was nice meeting you, Carth."

"What just happened?" Carth asked Tomak as he watched Consu leave with the Jedi Master.

Tomak sighed. "Damn robes and their holostar looks. There goes my date for the evening," he signalled the waitress over. "Want another drink?"

"Make it a double."


	2. Assignment: Endar Spire

Assignment: the Endar Spire

Mission Leader: Bastila, Jedi Knight

Destination: Classified

Objective: Classified

It had been more than a week since the Endar Spire left orbit, and Carth still had no idea what he was supposed to be doing. So far his Advisor position seemed to consist of nothing else but sitting at the Captain's table and smiling at the other officers and at the Jedi assigned to the ship.

Carth had no doubts about the importance of the mission. It was being led by the legendary Bastila, master of Battle Meditation, after all. What Carth doubted was his importance to the mission. He was not used to being left out of the command structure and was beginning to feel more than a little useless. Bastila refused to discuss anything important with him and the Captain had threatened to throw him in the brig the last time Carth tried to get information about the mission from him.

With no official duties to attend do, Carth ended up spending most of his days on the blaster range, working out his frustrations on one target after another. That is, he had been spending most of his days on the range. Today the Warrant Officer in charge of the Armoury had kicked him out with the excuse that they had run out of target droids.

 _Ran out of target droids, right. Translation: Get off my range, you crazy bastard, you're starting to scare the troops,_ Carth thought shaking his head at the memory of the carefully expressionless face the officer had maintained while blocking the door to the range.

This had brought him to his current spot; hunched over a desk in the ship's library. Carth thought spending a couple of days reading would make him look harmless enough that he could get back on the range again.

"You through with that datacard?"

"Almost," Carth said absently, and then looked up. "Consu Donazar, right? I was surprised to see your name on the crew manifest."

"Not as surprised as I was," she said ruefully. "One minute I'm a free woman, and the next Kavar's looking at me with those gorgeous big blue eyes and I'm cheerfully signing enlistment papers. Instead of deserting, I reported for duty and ended up here."

"All for the best, soldier," he said. "The ...

"Republic needs me. Yeah, I know. Spare me the pep talk and hand me that card."

"You don't need this card, it's just a level one security handbook," he said. "I thought I'd brush up on my basic skills while we're in transit."

"That's what I'm doing," she said.

"Your file says you're a tenth level security expert," he said, looking at her with a frown.

"And a twelfth level computer expert, I know," Consu said, rolling her eyes. "I hope no one's expecting me to do any hacking on this run. Since most of my technical skills floated away in that Kolto Tank along with half my memories."

 _Half her memories? What the hell?_ Carth studied Consu and thought she looked serious. "Are you telling me," he said slowly. "That you still haven't recovered from your injuries?"

"Oh, I'm recovered," she said cheerfully. "As good as ever, according to Medical. Just missing a few memories here and there. It's really strange. I can remember escorting a strike force against a Mandalorian base on Althir. I can remember infiltrating that base, bypassing all their security systems, and reprogramming half their droids before they realized something was wrong, but I can't for the life of me remember **how** I did any of this. Right now I can't even crack the lock on my own footlocker."

"And Command knows about your ... technical difficulties?"

"They have to; it's in my medical files."

"Then why the hell are you on this mission!" he exclaimed, slamming the datapad down on the desk.

"I don't know, guess the Republic's just really desperate," Consu said, snatching up the pad and deftly sliding out the datacard. She dropped his pad back on the table and grinned. "Makes you wonder if we lost the war, and they just haven't gotten around to telling us, doesn't it?"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

They finally let Carth back on the blaster range, with the provision that he spend no more than two hours a shift there. That still left him a lot of time to wander the corridors glaring at all the people who had jobs to do. This was why he was thrilled to finally be summoned to Bastila's office.

"You wanted to see me, Jedi Bastila?" Carth said eagerly as soon as she let him into her office.

"Yes, I need your help," she said.

"Regarding the mission?" he asked hopefully. "You realized I can't advise you properly unless I know something about our goals?

"Hmm, no," she said, stepping away from Carth and eyeing him warily. "I need your help with the Captain. He's being very stubborn about implementing changes to the way he runs this ship."

"He's probably just being stubborn because **it's his ship** ," Carth said, feeling his excitement drain away. _Maybe there is no mission, and Command's just playing some galactic size joke on me?_

"Haven't you noticed the appalling lack of discipline on this ship?" she asked.

"The only thing I've noticed is that no one seems to know what the hell we're doing out here," he said, grinding his teeth together. "I'm a soldier and I follow orders, but it's nice to actually **have** orders to follow."

"There see!" Bastila said, pointing a finger at Carth. "That's what I'm talking about, you have no discipline, no control, and you let your emotions run rampant, and the crew are even worse! There's something wrong on this ship, and it's starting to affect everyone; we need to put a stop to it! I spoke to the Captain about implementing new regulations regarding acceptable behaviour on this ship, and he was unbelievably rude. I almost had him arrested for insubordination." She headed over to the viewscreen and turned it around to face Carth. "Come see what's going on in the recreation room. Just look at that!"

Carth looked, but could not understand what was upsetting the Jedi. He saw a couple of the crew watching a holomovie, a few more playing a game of darts, and a large group of them playing a pazaak tournament. No one was fighting, or getting upset, in fact they all seemed to be having a good time. He even spotted one of the Jedi off in the corner having a drink with a crewman. Carth took a deep breath and then turned to Bastila. "Alright, I'm perfectly calm and I'm happy even though I have no idea what our mission is. Now, you want to tell me what's upsetting you about the crew?"

"Can't you see what they're doing?" Bastila said as one of the pazaak players stood up and pulled his shirt off.

Carth took another look and saw that most of the pazaak players were in various states of undress. He tilted the camera view and recognized Consu at one of the tables. He was a bit disappointed to see she still had most of her clothes on. "Strip pazaak. Looks like fun."

"She, I mean they, do that sort of thing all the time!" Bastila said, waving her arms in emphasis. "And some of them end up pairing up and leaving together. We're in the middle of a war and the crew is spending all of their energy on mindless entertainment and primitive mating rituals! It's ... it's animalistic!"

"I thing a better word would be human," he said, starting to smile. "You haven't worked with non-Jedi very much, have you? Outside of combat, I mean."

"I admit I have spent most of my life in secluded training with my Masters," Bastila answered, with a hint of irritation in her voice. She lifted her chin and stared defiantly at him. "But I had the best instructors the Council could provide, and I am more than capable of dealing with this command."

The Jedi who was officially his commanding officer suddenly looked very young to Carth. _This is the last best Hope of the Republic? I really hope the crew don't find out Bastila is greener than an ensign just out of the Academy._

"What exactly," Carth said slowly. "Do you think the crew should do with their off-duty hours?"

"Meditate, study, exercise, preferably something that calms the emotions, rather than inflames them."

Carth started laughing.

"I am being serious," Bastila said, crossing her arms over her chest. "Too much emotion can be dangerous."

"If you're a **Jedi**."

"It is always tempting to give in to our baser emotions, but we must resist such dark desires."

"I'm sure that's true for **Jedi**."

"Strong feelings, anger, passion, jealousy, lust; they must not be embraced but instead controlled and mastered."

"Only for you **Jedi** ," Carth growled, fearlessly indulging in some of those baser emotions. "Stop thinking of your training and trying to treat everyone like Jedi. Believe me, if you try to interfere with the crew's harmless pastimes, and I do mean harmless, you'll be one step away from a mutiny."

"That's what the Captain said," Bastila said.

"Well then, for the sake of your Force, would you listen to him? You deal with your Jedi however you see fit, and let the Captain deal with his people."

Her shoulders slumped and she looked at the viewscreen again with bewilderment. "Are you sure this is normal?"

"Yes," Carth drawled. "Maybe if you don't trust us non-Jedi, you should talk with your fellow Knights. I'll wager most of them could tell you a thing or two about life outside the Jedi ranks."

"But it's so difficult dealing with all these uncontrolled emotions," Bastila said sadly, waving her hand at the scene in the rec room which she was once again watching with wide eyes.

 _What did I do to piss off Command and get assigned here?_ Carth walked over to the viewscreen and turned it off. "Problem solved. Now, unless you have something relevant to discuss, something about the incredibly secret mission, I'll be leaving now."

Bastila buried her face in her hands. "I wish the bond could be turned off as easily as that viewscreen," she whispered.

"Bond?" Carth repeated. "What bond?"

"Nothing you need be concerned about," Bastila said, looking up and speaking in her normal voice again.

"I don't want to know, forget I asked," he said, throwing up his hands defensively and backing away from her.

"Thank you for your time, Commander Onasi, that will be all for now."

Carth grimaced, saluted half-heartedly, and then turned to leave.

"One moment," Bastila said. "About this mission, I know why the Admiralty insisted we take you with us."

"Then you know more than I do," he said.

"Do you mean that? But I thought ..."

"Thought what?"

She looked to one side and bit her lower lip. "This is a dangerous mission and in case in all goes wrong ... what were your orders?"

"Report to the Endar Spire, and advise the Jedi Bastila."

"That's it? Nothing about carrying out an execution if necessary to protect the Republic?"

"What! I'm a pilot, not an, an assassin. What the hell kind of mission is this?"

"Never mind," she said, sitting down and waving him away. "Just go."

 _Aw, crap, don't tell me the Jedi are messing with sith artifacts again. What it is with Jedi and flirting with the dark side? Still, if she already thinks I'm assassin, may as play along._ "Just so you know, Jedi Bastila. I'm no assassin but if you start to go all sith-like on me, then I'll be more than happy to use you for blaster practice."

"Thank you," she said, with no hint of irony in her voice. "I appreciate the thought."

 _You do?_ "Anything to help," he said, before saluting smartly and walking away from the crazy Jedi.


	3. Situation Normal

Humming tunelessly to himself, Carth leaned against the wall and watched the serving droid approaching the lift to the bridge. Just as it reached the lift doors, he stepped out and blocked its way. "I'll take that, you go on back to the officer's mess, they could use your help there." The little droid rocked back and forth, apparently agitated at giving up its tray of caffa, but it just let off one sad little beep when Carth lifted off the tray and then rolled back the way it came.

"Who ordered the caf?" Carth asked as he strolled onto the bridge bearing the tray. The Captain turned to him and frowned. "They're really swamped down at the mess," Carth said with a shrug.

"Have you no respect for your rank?" The Captain hissed when Carth approached him.

"No caf for you?"

The Captain covered his eyes briefly with one hand and then snapped his fingers at Carth. "Fine, I'll take one with cream, no sugar, and don't expect a tip, boy."

Carth handed the caffa over with a small grin, and then moved through the bridge dispensing caffa to several nervous looking crewmen until his tray was empty. Once he was finished he dropped the tray on the console by the lift and wandered over to side to watch the viewport. There wasn't much to see in hyperspace, but he found the chaotic lightshow outside both familiar and exciting in its ever-changing appearance.

The Captain stood up and walked over to stand beside him. "You don't need an excuse to come to the bridge."

"No, Captain, but it makes me feel a bit less like a civilian tourist to actually do something."

The Captain nodded in agreement. "I understand, but you're scaring the youngsters. They're not sure if they should salute you, or call for the medics."

Carth waved at a couple of the junior officers who were looking his way. They quickly turned back to their console displays. "They'll get over it. While I'm here, I should warn you; the Jedi in the mess were bitching about a change in orders. Bastila was mumbling something about being calm and serene, but it sure didn't seem to be working."

"I'm not surprised," The Captain said. "Our side mission's been put on hold. We've been ordered to join up with a Battle Group for an engagement."

"Back to normal fleet activities," Carth said.

"As normal as any battle ever is," the Captain agreed.

"Need an extra fighter pilot?" Carth asked, knowing the answer already.

The Captain laughed. "You're a little past those days, Onasi. That's what you get for accepting so many promotions. You're welcome to stay on the bridge, but please, no backseat piloting on my watch."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

They never made it to their rendezvous point. One minute they were cruising through hyperspace, and the next the ship lurched and shook as they were wrenched back into normal space. The missiles pounded into and around the ship as alarms filled the bridge with their sharp warning blasts. Carth picked himself up off the floor and stole a quick glance out the viewport. He saw what looked like two Sith battleships outside before he turned and surveyed the damage to the bridge. He spotted one lieutenant with an arm dangling uselessly who was trying to work a communications console. He sent the injured officer to the back of the bridge to wait for the medics and took over his post.

The Captain's voice carried over the constant banging and rattling as the ship rocked under the barrage of missiles. "Evasive maneuvers get us out of here!"

"Trying sir, but we're boxed in," the helmsman responded. "We can't get clear to enter a hyperspace window."

"What the hell is out there? Weapons keep firing; try to clear a path to the port side. And scramble the fighters."

"Eight fighters made it out of the launch bays," Carth said. "They were all destroyed; the enemy have us surrounded."

"It's a Sith Battle Fleet," the young ensign at tactical reported. "They have us surrounded."

"They were waiting for us," someone said. "I think they pulled us out of hyperspace"

"We've just lost sub-space thrusters," Carth said, relaying a report from Engineering.

"Sith are boarding through the aft cargo holds."

"We've lost the port side barracks."

"Order all hands to fall back to the bridge," the Captain said to Carth. "We'll try to hold them off here."

"What is that damned Jedi doing?" The Captain asked after Carth relayed his orders to the crew.

Carth turned to see Bastila and one of her Knights had made it to the bridge sometime during the battle. The Knight was standing guard over Bastila who was sitting cross-legged on the floor with her eyes closed. As Carth watched she jerked back, looking as though she had been punched by an invisible fist. "I think she's trying to do that Battle Meditation thing."

"Well it's not working! We're losing this fight, and losing it fast."

Carth turned back to the reports streaming across his display. "Sith are battling their way through the engine deck, they've almost breached the crew deck."

Only two crewmen made it to the bridge to bolster their defences.

"We can't hold them off, Captain. The Sith are pouring in faster than we can track them."

"Onasi!"

"Captain?"

"Get Bastila out of here. This ship is lost and we can't let the Sith get her alive. I'm ordering you to get her to the escape pods and off this ship. We'll give you two minutes and then I'm giving the general order to abandon ship."

Carth stood up and approached the two Jedi. "Time to get your boss out of here."

"It's dangerous to disturb Bastila when she's meditating," the Jedi guarding Bastila said.

"More dangerous not to disturb her," Carth said. "Hey, sleeping beauty, time to go," he shook Bastila lightly, and then a bit harder when she didn't respond.

"No, I can do this, I just need to ..."

"It's over," he said. "We've been boarded, and no amount of Jedi magic tricks can help one lone cruiser fight off an entire Sith Fleet. Let's go."

"Where is crewman Donazar?" Bastila asked.

"How the hell would I know?" Carth said. "Probably dead, or soon to be dead like everyone else on this ship. You're the only one they want alive."

"Dead is unfortunate, but acceptable," Bastila said as she grabbed the edge of the desk and dragged herself up to a standing position. "Very well, lead the way." She took two steps forwards and then stumbled.

Carth grabbed her and threw her over his shoulder. She let out a little squeak of protest when he started carrying her out the door. "I can walk," she protested.

"No time!" he grunted. He was starting to regret spending all that time practicing with his blaster. _Should have spent more time in the weight room. Jedi's heavier than she looks._

"I can take her," the Jedi said, stepping forwards to take Bastila from Carth.

"You take point and make sure our path is clear," Carth ordered. "Head straight for the escape pods, we're getting off this ship. Go, now."

The Jedi made no more protests as he switched on his lightsaber and advanced down the corridor.

Carth raced down the corridor heading towards the escape pods. Dimly, as though they were sounding from a great distance away, he heard the blaring alarms and the Captain ordering all hands to abandon ship. Sliding around the corner he nearly ran into the Jedi who had stopped and put one arm up to block Carth's path.

"Ow," Bastila said as Carth dropped her. She looked over at the Jedi and tilted her head to one side asking a silent question.

"The Sith are here. There's at least six of them up the corridor to the left," he answered.

"I'll distract them, you get Bastila to the pods," Carth said, pulling out his blaster and stepping into sith-infested corridor, moving before the Jedi could to stop him. He shot once without aiming and then turned and barrelled down the corridor. He wasn't sure if the Sith were following or not, all he could hear was the pounding of his own feet. The whine of laser shots hissed past him as he ran. It took him a few seconds to realize the shots were coming from in front of him, and not from behind him. He saw four red blurs as some crewman passed by him and finished off the troopers. He leaned against the wall and struggled to catch his breath.

"Are you all right, sir?" one blond crewman with a thin stream of blood running down his face asked.

"Fine," Carth said, straightening up. "Keep moving, we have to get off this ship."

"Yes, sir, we figured that out already," the crewman said, shouldering his blaster rifle and gesturing at Carth to move ahead of him.

They reached the starboard escape pod bay with no further incidents. Once there, Carth saw his escort off, and then cursed when he saw there was only one pod left. Resigned to waiting for any stragglers, he headed for the console. Keeping one screen always on the outside corridor to watch for approaching Sith, Carth scanned the ship for any republic comlinks still transmitting. It seemed every time he found a survivor, they blinked off the map. Just little red dots disappearing one by one. Some he could put faces to, but others were just names blinking off on the screen - Calris, Maas, Vandeeli, Colt, Antilla, Dondel, Ulgo - eventually there was only left - Donazar.

"Haul ass, Consu, or I'm leaving without you," Carth barked into his communicator when he saw the last friendly red dot pausing just down the corridor.

"Haul ass?" Consu gasped when she stumbled through the door moments later, one leg sporting a hastily tied bandage. "What do you think I was doing? Stopping to do my nails?"

"Get in the pod," he said, placing one hand on her back and shoving her through the hatch. He followed right after her. "I'll drive."

"I'll just pass out, if that's alright with you," Consu said.

He punched the launch button as he was struggling to lock in his safety belt. There wasn't really much piloting involved, about all Carth could do was point the pod in the direction of the planet and let gravity take over once the ship entered the planet's atmosphere. _It had to be Taris, what I wouldn't give for a nice farming world right now. What am I supposed to do? Aim for a soft building?_ Carth hunched in his seat as the ship plowed through the skies, when the lights from the planet began to change from one big mass to a series of little dots, he started braking. He was still pushing the brake button even after the pod had bounced and rolled to a screeching halt.

Carth sat up and took a deep breath. _Still alive, fantastic. Still alive, on a planet surrounded by a Sith battle fleet. Not so fantastic._ He snapped off his restraints and went to check on Consu. He could not wake her up, but at least she was breathing normally. He hunted under the seat for the first aid kits that were in every escape pod, shoved them into his pockets and then unbuckled her from her restraints and started dragging her out the hatch. "Sorry, Consu, but I've got to move you. No telling when the Sith will come looking for us. It would be really great if you woke up now."

She didn't wake up, not that Carth had really expected her to. He paused when he reached the street and shuddered when he saw how close the pod had come to plummeting down to the lower depths of the city. He could see some shadows moving though the windows of nearby buildings, but no one had yet come out to investigate the crash. It was a pretty good sign that the Sith had taken control of Taris. There's nothing like an occupation to make fear override normal curiosity.

 _First, get out of the street and as far away from here as possible._ Carth sighed and lifted Consu onto his shoulders. _Carth Onasi, rescuer of damsels in distress. They look so much lighter in the holomovies_. He had only walked about half the width of the street when an airspeeder flew over his head, and dropped down right in front of him. After placing Consu on the ground, he reached for his blaster and trained it on the speeder.

"Put that down," the driver said in slightly accented basic. As he stepped closer, Carth saw that he was a Duros. No uniform that he could see and no visible weapons. "You are Republic, yes?"

"Keep those hands where I can see them," Carth said. "Anyone else with you?"

"I am Baliss, and I am on your side," the Duros said rapidly. "The Sith will be here soon. You come with me, and I can help you hide from them."

"How do I know you're not working for the Sith?"

"If I am a Sith agent then you're already finished," Baliss said, sounding a little irritated. "Look, you can try to carry your female and hope the Sith are incredibly stupid and can't follow your sooty footprints, or you can get in my speeder and I can get you away from this crash site."

 _That's just what a Sith agent would say, but he's right. I don't have a lot of options here, and that pod's sending up a smoke signal that even a recruit fresh off the farm wouldn't miss seeing. Be nice to the stranger, he could be telling the truth. Besides, I can always shoot him if he does land us in a nest of Sith_. Carth gave his potential rescuer a broad smile and holstered his blaster. "Well, when you put it that way. Thanks for your help."


	4. Dirtside

"Thanks, Baliss," Carth said as he took the bag of groceries from the Duros. He took out the last handful of scavenged items Consu had hidden in her pack and passed them over. "This should help cover the costs."

"Payment is not required," Baliss said. "But it is appreciated. Thank you."

Carth winced as a scream came from behind him.

"Ah, your fellow soldier," Baliss said. "I thought she was getting better?"

"She's feeling just fine," Consu said as she stumbled towards them and made a grabbing motion towards the Duros. "Those are mine! I picked them off all of those dead guys myself."

Baliss blinked, and then stepped back. "Perhaps ..." he stuttered.

"Keep them," Carth interrupted as he held Consu back. "These people can barely feed themselves," he whispered to her. "The least we can do is offer them some compensation for their troubles."

"It's no trouble," Baliss said, giving a slight bow even as he hastily pocketed the items. "We are more than happy to help you any way we can," he turned towards Consu. "You are truly recovered?"

"Aside from the trauma of my CO seeing me naked," Consu said. "And robbing my blind."

Carth rolled his eyes. "It's not good naked when someone's bleeding all over you. And I'm not your CO! I wasn't even in the chain of command for this mission."

Consu looked around and hummed. "Unless I got a dozen field promotions they didn't tell me about, then yeah, you're my Commanding Officer. Seeing as the former chain of command has been flattened across half of Taris."

"We don't know that," Carth said.

"Eh, she's probably right," Baliss said. "Or eaten, I did mention the wonderful Undercity, didn't I?"

"Yes you did," Carth said. "But until I know for sure, I'm working under the assumption that Bastila's alive, and we're going to find her, no matter what level of the city she landed in."

"So we're trapped on a Sith occupied planet, with no money, no way off, and instead of keeping our heads down in this fairly nice part of the Upper City, you want us to go into the dank under-levels in a futile mission to find this all important Bastila?"

"Bastila and any other republic survivors. Although our primary goal is to find and protect Bastila."

Consu groaned. "She's a Jedi! We're just two soldiers."

"You do understand how important she is?"

She waved a hand in dismissal. "Yes, yes, yes. You do understand I like living?"

"So do I, but that's never stopped me from doing my duty. And since I'm just a pilot, and you're a scout with experience working on occupied planets, you're helping me find Bastila. I'll make it an order if I have to."

"Please do, Commander," she whined. "At least then I won't feel like a complete nerf-head when it all goes wrong. I'll just blame it all on you."

"We are finding Bastila. That's an order Sergeant Donazar."

She stood up and saluted. "Right then, first thing, Carth, is drop the ranks, we need to blend in with the locals. That means we need a believable cover story. Stranded spacers will do. Just remember we're partners, not soldiers. Now let's find a way down to the lower levels."

"We've got one stop to make before doing anything else," Carth said.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"You're sure her scans are fine?"

Dr. Zelka Forn nodded. "Yes, I'm sure. I was sure the first time I scanned her. And the second. And the third."

"He thinks I'm brain-damaged," Consu said leaning over Zelka's shoulder and tapping the screen. "I'm thinking you should give ol' Carth a scan too, just in case."

"I have real patients," Zelka said, pushing past them and heading into the back of his clinic. "Including your fellow soldiers, may I remind you. Come back when you're bleeding."

"Now can we go scout out this place properly and start blending in?" Consu asked. "We need to get a hold of some credits, too."

Carth sighed. "Fine, just remember that you're the one with the memory problems."

"Was that a joke?"

"No."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 _Scouting, she calls it_ Carth thought with an inward wince as the band started another song. "Give me another," he said to the bartender.

"What's the point of drinking this watered down bantha piss," Consu griped beside him. "Hey barkeep, don't you have any of that infamous Tarisian Ale?"

"No," he scowled. "It's reserved for Sith by order of the acting government."

"Figures," Consu scowled. "Jedi by any name, total buzz-kills."

"We're working," Carth hissed at her.

"No," Consu said as she stood up. "I'm working. You just sit there and look pretty while I go find us some opportunities of a monetary nature."

"Nice boss," the bartender said sympathetically.

"Technically, I'm the boss," Carth said. "It was my ship. Although I'm not sure who's calling the shots now that we're grounded and running out of credits. Damn woman figured the best way to make some more was to shake them out of the local thugs. Which meant letting me get jumped by muggers so she could shoot them while they were busy. Busy beating me up ."

"That sounds fine to me. Much better than the stranded spacer scum who decide they might as well **become** thugs," the bartender said. "Of course you could try to sign up at the Sith base, they've been recruiting steadily since they landed."

Carth shuddered at the thought of joining the Sith and went back to staring morosely at the other patrons.

"Hey, boss, wanna go to a party?" Consu said when she worked her way back to the bar.

He looked at her wide grin and grimaced. "Are you trying to get me beat up again?"

"Not really, but they're offering decent credits to winners in the duelling ring if you're interested ..."

He scowled. "You can sign up, I prefer not plastering my face all over the vids."

"No duelling, fine. Yun over there invited me to a party," She pointed at and then waved to the man in question. "He's a nice guy for a Sith."

Carth dropped his head in his hands. "Partying with a Sith. Are you insane?"

"I'm making nice with the locals, and right now the locals with power are the Sith," Consu said.

"Plus they've got the good booze," the bartender pointed out.

"That too," Consu agreed. "Although, unless that big guy in the corner is a Sith, you've been holding out on us. I checked the label and he's got a bottle of Tarisian's finest."

The bartender made shushing motions with his hands. "Canderous Ordo's high up in the Exchange, you gotta bend the rules for them, but it's not polite to mention it."

"Oh?" Consu said as she stood up.

"I think your new boss is looking to join the thugs after all," the bartender said.

Carth lifted one hand and then the other. "Sith on this hand, Gangsters on the other. Gangsters or Sith. I am not loving this planet."

"You and me, both, buddy," the bartender muttered as Carth sighed and went to trail after Consu.

He was just close enough to catch Consu's words as she sat down across the table from the Exchange thug. "How's twenty credits sound?"

"Not even if it was free, sister," Canderous snorted.

Consu laughed. "Keep dreaming, Grampa. The ale, twenty credits for your ale."

Carth grabbed Consu by the arm and pulled her up. "Stop bothering the ... local businessmen. We need to leave now to get home before the curfew."

She elbowed him in the stomach and then disappeared as she stepped away. "You've got a curfew to meet, me and my shiny new toy have a party to go to."

 _Why did I let her buy that_ _stealth field generator_ _?_ Carth wondered as he tried to catch his breath. _Essential scout tool my butt._

"Hands off!" Canderous growled as he snatched at the bottle of ale and glared at a shimmering patch of air. After a moment he redirected that glare to Carth.

"Uh, gotta go," Carth said pointing at the door. "Curfew."

Carth flashed a nervous grin and then bolted out of the cantina. _Crazy woman. Crazy planet. Crazy fraking Saul orbiting out of reach. Twenty will get you one that I wake up in a Sith cell tomorrow._

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

A loud clang woke Carth up, he looked around and yelped when he saw a Sith Lieutenant standing by his bed. He rolled off the bed and reached for his blaster as he hit the floor with a thud.

"Relax, boss, it's just me," Consu said raising her cap and grinning. "Put that thing away and get dressed. We've got a date with the Lower City."

 _Wait for it, don't shoot, yet_. Carth took a quick look around without lowering his blaster. _Okay, there's no one else here. She's probably not a Sith. A Sith agent wouldn't blow their cover for no reason would they?_ He furrowed his brow and sighted down the blaster barrel. _A crazy one might._

"Boss?" Consu said, holding up her empty hands and waving them at him. "I'm not a Sith. I went to that party remember? Party, drunk Sith, lots of discarded uniforms lying around for the taking. You're the one who told me that only Sith could get down to the Lower City. You really thought I was just in it for the booze?"

He lowered his blaster. "Uh, yes?"

"Idiot. Come on, be a good trooper and put your armour on. We want to get down to the Lower City before the guys wake up and realize they're short a couple of uniforms."

"I hate this planet," Carth said staring down at the stolen armour. He frowned. "Hey, why do you get to be the officer?"

She looked down at her uniform. "Because the only uniform I could find in your size was the trooper's? Quite griping, and pass me your blaster. It's better than anything I've been able to find."

He put a hand over his blaster. "What? No! This is a family heirloom. Besides, I'm a better shot than you."

"Not by much," she answered. "Come on now, there's a reason you got the good vibroblades. Let's not mess with what works."

"Me getting beat up and you shooting from a safe distance?"

"Exactly!"

"I like shooting from a safe distance, too," Carth grumbled as he strapped on the trooper chest plate. "This armour is pretty shoddy."

"I know," she said with a grin. "I love it when the enemy cuts costs. It makes it a lot easier to take them out."

"Anyone who takes me out will be after you next," Carth said.

Consu shoved a backpack at him. "Which is why we're taking our good stuff to change into. Lucky for me I have a minion to carry my bags."

"You can't carry your own pack?"

"That would ruin my Sith cred. Now let's hustle, if we time it right we can get to the elevator to the Lower Levels just after a scheduled patrol leaves."

He hefted the pack and took off after her trying to ignore the itch in his shoulder blades from all the murderous looks sent their way by the locals.

Lungs burning, he almost ran through Consu when she stopped and held up an arm. "Hold up a minute. The patrol just went through. We'll wait a few minutes and then follow them."

He leaned against a wall and took a few deep breaths.

"You've really got that imperial deep breathing down," she said. "Might want to tone it down a little, don't want to overdo it."

He tried to snarl, but could only come out with a little gurgling sound.

"Pilots, no stamina," she said. "Need a little pick-me-up? Word is the lower levels are a mite dangerous."

"I'm good," he said, standing up straight and adjusting the backpack. "Are we going to do this or not?"

"That's a good trooper," she said, smacking him on his upper arm. "There's just one guard to bluff, and then the wonders of the Lower City are ours to enjoy."

Just before they rounded the corner to the elevator Consu gave him a shove and he fell forwards on to his hands and knees. "Get moving you lazy farmer," she shouted. "Our patrol was scheduled to move out five minutes ago."

She stopped in front of the guard to the elevator and looked around with a scowl on her face. "Where are those incompetent louts?"

The trooper on guard saluted her. "Are you looking for the fifth patrol, Ma'am? They headed down to the Lower City a couple of minutes ago."

"Without me!" she yelled and waved her arms. "I'll have them all cleaning the garbage chutes, while they're operating! How dare they leave early!"

"Er, I think they left on time, Ma'am," the trooper said.

"Are you saying I was late?" Consu asked as she pulled out her blaster and levelled it at the trooper.

"No ma'am. They left early, Ma'am."

"Hmph," she stopped and looked thoughtful for a moment. "They can't have gotten far, come along, trooper, we'll just have to find them and then bust their asses."

"Ma'am," the guard said and then stepped aside to let Carth and Consu on to the elevator.

"A little over the top, don't you think," Carth asked on the ride down.

Consu shrugged and twirled Carth's blaster before holstering it. "Maybe, but it was fun."


	5. Gangsters

**Gangsters**

Carth ducked behind a pile a rubble. "Welcome to the Tarisian lower levels," he griped. "Two steps off the elevator and we run into a war zone."

"Not a war zone, just the Lower City," Consu said cheerfully from beside him. She stuck her head up and took a look. "I heard the Bek and Vulkar gangs are grappling for control down here. I'd wager that's who's fighting. Looks like it's almost over, the winners have dropped their blasters and are just beating up the wounded with sticks now. Shall we run for it?"

"Run where?"

She dug through the backpack and took out the canteen. "We'll wait it out, then. See if they leave the streets clear when they're done. Want a drink?"

"Yes, thanks."

"Beks sure fall down easy," one of the surviving fighters laughed. "Now who wants to go Sith-hunting?"

Carth groaned. "I think they saw us."

Consu grinned and held up a grenade.

"No, don't," Carth said as he held up a hand. "We can't kill them for attacking us when they think we're Sith."

"Come out, little Sith cowards," one of the fighters sang as he walked towards Carth's hiding place.

"Wait, wait, wait, wait," he called out. "We're not Sith!"

"Or cowards!" Consu added. "We're armed and let me tell you, if the boss wasn't such a wimp, I would have dropped a couple of you by now!"

"Do you mind?" Carth hissed at her before turning back to the gangsters. "Look, fellows, you're already wounded, and we're just, um, Sith-imitating tourists ..."

"Well-armed Sith-imitating tourists!"

"... what she said. Do yourselves a favour, turn around and survive this day."

The sound of footsteps stopped. "We don't like strangers, Sith or otherwise."

Carth listened for a moment. "Did I just hear a comm ping?"

Consu turned on her stealth generator and stood up to take a look at the cluster of gang members. "Yep," she whispered. "Looks like you convinced them to send for reinforcements. Good work, boss. Are you done making nice, or can we kill them now?"

Carth groaned. "They couldn't they just walk away? Fine, you get behind them and toss a grenade. I'll toss mine right after yours and we'll get them in the crossfire."

"Right, hmm, looks like they only got two more fighters to join them, so it's not so bad. I'll head out now. Keep them busy."

"Are you sure we can't talk this out like reasonable people?" Carth yelled.

"You're in Vulkar territory, coward. That's a death sentence."

"That ... doesn't work for me," Carth said while getting a grenade ready to throw. "Unless you mean your deaths, that works great."

An explosion caught the gang leader before he could reply. Carth stood up and tossed his own grenade. Squinting through the smoke clouds he shot one gangster who had dodged the grenades just before another one barrelled towards him. Carth dropped his blaster and brought up his vibroblade to block the incoming sword coming towards his head. Carth shoved his assailant against the wall and punched him. When the Vulkar didn't get up again, Carth turned and saw three newly arrived gangsters coming up behind Consu. Before he could call out a warning Consu had ducked, taken two down with one move, and then dispatched the other one. He stared for a moment and then shook his head, she shouldn't have been able to do ... whatever she had just done.

He limped over to where she was going through the pockets of the downed gangsters. "You're better at hand-to-hand than your file says you are. Where did you learn those moves?"

"I have no idea," she said with a shrug, and then frowned. "It could have been a fluke, I'm not trading my blaster for blades."

"You mean my blaster," he said.

She stood up. "We should get moving before more of those Vulkar guys show up."

He pointed down the alley the Vulkar reinforcements had come from. "It looks like the Vulkar's came from down there."

Consu pointed in the opposite direction. "So we're going that way?"

"You got it. We'll get rid of these Sith uniforms once we've gone far enough."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

_This is familiar_ Carth thought as he swirled a glass of murky looking ale and looked around at the raucous crowd of seedy-looking aliens and humans. _Two years I went without setting foot in a bar, and then I can't get away from them. I swear that woman has a homing device for seedy dives in her head._

"Sit here and don't get into trouble," she had said before taking off. Why was he taking orders from an enlisted soldier? Carth tilted his head and stole a glance in Consu's direction. She had left the Wookiee and the kid and was now headed for the bounty office. He sank a little lower in his chair. _They're just small fry bounty hunters,_ he told himself, _not anything to ... crap, was that Calo Nord? How much was a Republic officer worth again? Don't panic. Even when the Mandies had that five thousand credit reward on my head, that was small potatoes to the big-time hunters like Nord. Now I'm worth no more than any other officer. Which is insulting, come to think of it. I'm just as dangerous to the Sith as I was to ... oh good, he's gone._

Consu was still talking with the bounty hunters. Carth frowned, she better not try taking on any bounties, he didn't care how much they needed credits, there were some things Republic soldiers just should not do. Another thing Republic soldiers should not do is sit around and let others do all the work. He could talk to the natives just as well as she could. Carth stood up and starting wandering around.

He stopped by one boisterous table. "Excuse me, did you just mention a swoop race?"

The Bith he addressed twitched slightly. "Not **a** swoop race, up-lander, just **the** swoop race. What are you doing down here, anyway? If you're looking for trouble ..."

Carth raised his hands and smiled. "No trouble. I'm an off-world spacer, couldn't stand it upstairs, couldn't afford it, really. And let me tell you, getting down here was not easy."

The Bith grunted.

" **The** swoop race," Carth repeated and then snapped his fingers and grinned. "Do you mean the Tarisian Season Opener? I completely forgot it was that time of the year. Finally, a reason to be happy I'm stranded on this mudball."

One the Bith's table mates pointed over his shoulder. "Doran over there's taking bets on the race if you want in."

"Thanks," Carth said with a wave as he headed over the Bookie's corner table. Once there he picked up a datapad displaying the race information. He really shouldn't be wasting his time, but it was the Season Opener. There was plenty of time to look for ... _well, hello beautiful_.

"What are you doing, boss?" Consu asked as she came up behind him. "You better not have spent credits we can't spare on the races."

Carth let Consu lead him away from the Bookie's table. "I am capable of taking care of myself," he said when they were alone.

"Of course you are," Consu said soothingly. "It looks like most of the escape pods ended up in the Undercity and word is the Black Vulkars stripped them clean within hours. We're late to the party but might be able to find out some clues about whether Bastila survived the landing if we can find her pod."

"She survived, and the Black Vulkars found her," Carth said, crossing his arms and glaring at her.

"Possibly, but we don't know that for sure."

"Yes we do," Carth said, uncrossing his arms and holding up the swoop race datapad. "She's being offered up by the Vulkars as a Champion prize in the swoop race. See? One Republic officer; there's even a photo attached."

"That does look like her," Consu said with a grin. "No trudging through the festering pits of the Undercity for us. Although getting her back from the Vulkars will be tricky. We could always try to join their gang."

"Join the nice people who are gunning strangers down in the streets?"

"It might be a little difficult."

"We need another plan," Carth said.

Consu thought for a moment. "We can go the Hidden Beks. If anyone can help us assault the Vulkar base it will be the them."

"We need a plan that doesn't involve us joining a Swoop Gang."

"There's always the 'we attack the Black Vulkar base on our own' plan."

"..."

"So, did you find out where the Hidden Beks hang out?"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Finding and getting in to the Hidden Beks hangout was surprisingly easy. "They're not really 'hidden', are they?" Carth whispered as they were led to the leader.

"It's a trap," Consu whispered back with a snicker.

"That's not funny," Carth growled, hand twitching as he tried not to reach for his vibroblade.

She rolled her eyes. "Chill, boss. The Beks have a reputation going back years. They're good guys, trust me."

"Good guys unless you're an up-worlder with too many credits weighing them down," their guide said. "Or we decide we don't like you."

"Stop scaring the up-worlders," a Twi'lek female said. "That's my job."

"Yes, Zaerdra. They're all yours."

"So, talk to me," Zaerdra said, leaning against a wall and idly playing with a blaster rifle. "Convince me you're not a threat to Gadon Thek and the Hidden Beks and we might let you live."

Carth started to speak, but Consu stepped in front of him. "Let me do the speaking, boss. You're a little too rules and regulations for this crowd."

"I'm really not," Carth protested as he stepped aside. He expected Consu to try spinning some glib story but she stuck with the truth. Which worked better than he thought it would. Good thing the gangs were avidly anti-Sith. He was relieved when the Beks leader. Gadon, agreed to help them and completely thrilled when the Gadon put forth a plan to rescue Bastila.

"Win her in the swoop race," he said, smacking himself on the forehead. "That's brilliant!"

"Calm down, boss," Consu said. "There's the little matter of assaulting the Vulkar base to get Gadon's stolen prototype swoop accelerator back, first."

"Right," he turned to the Beks leader. "How often have you Beks attacked the Vulkar base?"

Gadon looked at Carth. "Never? Unlike you military types we don't believe in using our people as blaster fodder."

"We don't use our people as ... never mind," Carth said. "The point is you need our help, but the thing is we're good, but not take on a whole gang by ourselves good."

Consu sighed. "Pay no attention to the boss, the front-line types are way too fond of direct action. So what's the plan? We break in to the base, find the thing, steal the thing, and then get out without the Vulkars even knowing we're there?" She turned to Gadon. "I'm assuming you guys can help with the breaking into the base part. Please tell me you weren't thinking along Carth's 'go in through the front door' plan."

Gadon laughed. Carth gritted his teeth and reminded himself that they needed these people to find Bastila. He needed Consu. He didn't have a brig to put her in. What would he charge her with anyway? Disrespecting superior officers was an unofficial fleet tradition. Although normally you made sure the superior officers weren't around when you mocked them. What were they talking about now? Mission Vao?

"You mean that kid with the Wookiee?" Carth exclaimed. "She looked about twelve years old!"

"She's fourteen, actually," Gadon said.

"You think that's better? Fourteen years old and you let her wander around in the Undercity?"

"Mission does what she wants, we don't own her. Lucky for you, since she found a backdoor into the Vulkar base through the sewers."

"You said she's been gone longer than normal. She could be in trouble! Haven't you done anything to find her?"

"We are doing something, we asked you two to help," Gadon said crossly.

"What if we hadn't come along? You'd just let her die down there without even trying to look for her?"

"It's the Undercity, it's crawling with rakghouls. Anyone who goes down there knows the risks. Mission knows how to survive down there better than any of us."

Carth waved his arms in agitation. "I don't believe this. I know you people can fight. Didn't you people help fight off the Mandalorians during the last occupation?"

"We fought them on our turf, from the shadows, and not one-to-one, or one-to-packs like the rakghouls travel in," he said while glaring at Carth. "And, most importantly, you won't turn into a Mandie if you get bitten by one. **"**

"The man has a point," Consu said. "I say we wait a couple of days and see if Mission shows up."

"We aren't waiting," Carth said. "She might need help now."

She shrugged. "She might not."

"We're going."

"Yes, boss."

Once back in the streets Consu turned on her stealth generator. "What are you doing?" Carth asked.

"If anyone sees you they'll think you're alone and if they try attacking I can take them by surprise."

"They're a lot more likely **to** attack if they think I'm alone."

"Think of it as making the streets safe for the civilians," Consu said. "Are you coming?"

"Stealth field **off** ," Carth said. She grumbled as she flickered back into sight.

The streets were largely deserted, Carth only spotted a few fleeting shadows as they headed towards the Sith-controlled entrance to the Undercity. He was just starting to think the local thugs had wised up when he spotted a trio of Vulkar's up ahead harassing some citizen. He flattened against the wall and motioned to Consu to stop. "We have to help him," Carth said. "Are you ready?"

Consu peeked around his shoulder. "Hold up, boss, don't be in such a hurry to play hero."

Carth strained to hear the conversation. Not a citizen then, just another thug.

"Who do you want to help? The poor Exchange thug or the lowly Vulkars?" Consu asked with a snicker.

Carth scowled. "Oh wonderful, now your Mandalorian friend has shown up. I'm tempted to take them all out."

"What friend?" Consu asked jostling around him and looking down the street. "Oh, the big guy from the Cantina. Hah, look at how those Vulkars are simpering," Consu said.

"Afraid of one measly Mandalorian," Carth scoffed.

"Not so measly," Consu said.

"Hey, you two skulking in the corners looking for trouble?" the Exchange man called out after the Vulkars had scurried off.

"No, not that it matters, it keeps finding us anyway," Carth said, stepping out, keeping one hand on his vibroblade handle but not drawing it.

"Why Grampa, what a big gun you have," Consu said to the Canderous. Ignoring Carth when he glared at her.

The Exchange man looked at them and rolled his eyes. "You Sith stay out of Davik's way and we'll stay out of yours," he said before walking away.

"We're not Sith," Carth yelled at the departing thug.

"You sure about that?" Canderous said, lowering his blaster rifle. "The Vulkars said a couple of Sith who match your description were wandering around down here in civvies."

"We are not Sith," Carth said angrily.

"Is that a fact?"

"Damn, right," Carth said. "I'm Republic down to the bones. Cut me and I bleed pure fleet blood."

Consu kicked him. "Shut up, boss," she said.

Canderous laughed. "Nice covert work, Republic."

[He's an idiot] Consu said in Mandalorian. At least Carth thought she had called him an idiot. He wasn't quite fluent in Mandalorian. He scowled and tried to follow the conversation.

[Outranks me, so] something [Undercity] Consu was saying, waving her hands in agitation.

[Won't last two hours down there,] Canderous said with a snort.

[Just have to] something something [Carth] something [idiot's dead, I'm gone.]

Something [want me to] something [shoot him now?]

"Hey!" Carth shouted. [I speech Mando'a.]

Canderous smirked. "Yeah, poorly."

Carth narrowed his eyes. "I learnt enough to deal with you bucket-heads when we were kicking your asses. [We accept your surrender] How's that? Or there's: [Down on the ground, now!] Or one of my favourites: [Get back in line, prisoner.]"

"Try saying those words without a Jedi to hide behind," Canderous growled.

"I just did," Carth said, stepping forwards. "Here's another one: [Drop your weapons or die.]"

"How about: [Take it all off, stud!] Consu said, stepping between an irate Carth and a snarling Canderous. "Didn't you learn that one, Carth? No? That's a shame," She turned her back on him and addressed Canderous. "Don't hurt him, I need him to throw at the rakghouls."

"I don't have time to waste beating up the soon-to-be-dead," Canderous said as he shook his head and walked away.

"So, Undercity?" Consu said waving in the direction of the elevator down.

Carth glared at her. "You're taking point. I don't trust you at my back."

"Sheesh, boss, can't you take a joke? No one's going to feed you to the rakghouls."

"And stop calling me boss!"


	6. Sewer Crawl

Carth edged around a bend in the sewer tunnels and looked around warily. "All clear," he called out softly before moving ahead. Behind him his two shadows followed quietly. _How did I end up as rakghoul bait, again? Oh right, little "please help me' Mission Vao. Help me rescue my friend from Gamorrean slavers. As though mutated monstrosities weren't enough. I hate this planet._

He reached the end of the tunnel and punched the button that would open the door into the next section, yelped, and jumped back as he hit the button to close the door again. A couple of clangs sounded from the other side. "Big pack of ghouls on the other side," he said. "Got another way to that place those slavers are holding your friend, Mission?"

"Yeah, but it'll take a good four or five extra hours."

"How big of a pack?" Consu asked. "I don't mind losing a few grenades to spare us some time."

"A dozen or so big," Carth snapped. "We're going around."

"Oh come on, we found that anti-rakghoul serum, so it doesn't matter if you get bitten anymore ..."

"Tell that to the Sith patrol we found that serum on. Lot of good it did them."

"I don't like leaving Big Z with those nass-heads any longer than I have to," Mission complained and looked at Carth with a pair of big sad eyes. Her lower lip wobbled a little.

_That won't work this time, kid._ "How long will he be with them if all three of us get eaten?" Carth asked. "Now, which way do we go?"

Mission thought for a moment. "Back the way we came and then we take the ladder up a couple of levels."

"Right, let's start walking."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

After lot of walking, and more than a few dispatched enemies, Carth picked himself up off the floor. "Glad that's over, I think I prefer the rakghouls to those Gamorreans, they don't hit so hard."

"I wouldn't know, they didn't lay a hand on me," Consu said as she squinted at a cargo bay lock. "Okay, that should do it."

"Big Z!" Mission squealed and jumped on a startled looking Wookiee. They started chattering away, with Consu adding her own remarks at a couple of places.

"Guess that's Zaalbar then," Carth said as he hobbled over the Consu. "So, Wookiee's another one of your languages."

"Shyriiwook, actually," Consu said. "It's nice to know whether the howling mob of Wookiees coming after you are shouting 'hurrah for our saviour!" or "death to the boss's enemy!"

"That's ... never happened to me," Carth said.

Consu's eyes widened and she stepped behind Carth, holding him in front of her. "Knowing the language comes in handy more often than you'd think," she whispered before raising her voice and addressing Zaalbar. "Hey, he's the boss. Er, my Commanding Officer. Aren't you, sir?"

"What is wrong with you?" Carth asked as Consu pushed him forwards.

"Hee, hear that? That's the voice of a leader that is. Hey, if it was up to me, we wouldn't even be down here. I'd be up in a nice, Upper City apartment just waiting around for the Sith to leave," she poked him in the back. "Isn't that right, **sir**?"

"I think you would do your duty as a Republic soldier even without me around," Carth said stiffly.

"You go on thinking that, sir," Consu said and looked at the Wookiee. "But, point made, Carth's the one who really rescued you. That's Carth Onasi, your heroic rescuer."

Zaalbar growled and Mission held up a finger and pointed towards a side room. "Excuse for a moment, we're just going to go have a little chat."

"What was that all about?" Carth asked when the two had disappeared.

"Oh, just making sure you get the credit you're due," Consu said with a grin.

Carth eyed her suspiciously.

"So," she said, looking around. "Time to see what goodies these slavers collected, don't you think?"

"Go ahead," Carth said, sliding down to sit on the ground. He whole body ached, but at least he didn't seem to have any worse wounds than a few bruises. Make that a lot of bruises. _Ow_.

He was just starting to nod off when Mission and Zaalbar came back. Mission stopped in front of him and wrung her hands. Carth looked up at her. "What?" he asked.

"Um, the thing is Zaalbar says he owes you a lifedebt."

"Okay," Carth said.

"A lifedebt, boss," Consu said. "The Wookiees take those things seriously."

"Like in the holo's? Isn't all that just exaggerated melodrama?"

Zaalbar growled something.

"Nope, it's real," Mission said. "Congratulations, that's a pretty big thing, you know."

"Aw, hells," Carth said. "Alright, you tell him ..."

Zaalbar roared.

Mission glared down at Carth. "He does understand basic, you know."

"Right, sorry, I'm a little tired," Carth said and then addressed the Wookiee. "Look, the saving your life thing was just a bonus to carrying out my mission. I'm happy to help, but there's no real need to thank me. Er, consider all debts absolved?"

Consu shook her head. "Doesn't work that way, boss."

"Oh for frak's sake, this is ridiculous," Carth said. "How do you even determine who really saved your life? I mean Con opened your door ..."

Zaalbar crossed his arms and growled.

"... fine. How about Mission? We wouldn't have come here at all if she hadn't asked us to help you so ... "

Zaalbar growled again and said something to Mission. Consu held a hand up to her face and hid a smile.

"Better just accept it," Mission said. "Zaalbar says if you keep insulting him by trying to belittle the value of his lifedebt he'll have to rip your arms off."

"Uh, wouldn't that violate the debt?"

"You'll still be alive," she said with a shrug.

"Now that we've got that settled," Consu said. "We need to get moving before more of these slaver guys show up."

Carth stood up with a groan. "As long as we can move slowly. Unless my new friend wants to carry me."

Zaalbar let out a questioning grunt, and then shrugged and picked Carth up.

"Hey wait, I was joking," Carth said, struggling a little. Zaalbar ignored him and he could hear both Mission and Consu giggling. _What kind of soldier giggles?_ "You can let me down, now." _Or not. May as well go with it, we are making good time, it's sort of comfortable, and I am really tired._

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Huh, what?" Carth said when he woke up.

"Welcome back, boss," Consu said.

"Where am I?"

"Ooh, someone knows his lines," Mission giggled. "Don't forget 'who am I' next."

"I know who I am," Carth said, sitting up and holding his head in his hands. "Got any food?"

Consu tossed him a ration bar. Carth looked around, they were in some small room, and still in the sewers from the smell of it. Zaalbar was snoring away, taking up a good third of the floor space.

"It's an old maintenance store room," Mission said. "I've spent the night here before. It's safe, from the rakghouls at least. We're just going over strategy for when we hit the Vulkar base tomorrow."

Carth groaned. "Is there some reason we can't head back to the Lower City to rest up a bit, first?"

"We could, but then we'd just have to come back down here again," Consu said. "We're running a bit short of time before the race, anyway. You should go back to sleep. We want you in good shape when you outrun the rancor tomorrow."

"The what?" Carth exclaimed.

"The Vulkars have a pet rancor guarding their backdoor," Mission said. "I'm sure I mentioned that before."

"No, no you did not, I would have remembered that," Carth said, falling back with a groan. He pulled his jacket over his head. "Do me a favour and don't wake me up in the morning."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Mission waved before she disappeared and went to place a series of mines in the rancor's den. Carth grimaced. "I don't like this at all. Am I the only one who thinks sending a kid into a rancor's den is a bad idea?"

"Yep," Consu said. "I am no good with mines, and Zaalbar's no good at being sneaky."

"How did that thing even get down here?" Carth whispered. "Never mind, it doesn't really matter. I still don't see why you can't just sneak by it and then break into the Vulkar base."

"Because," she said slowly. "If something goes wrong and I have to make a run for it I am not going to run straight into that thing's mouth. Now get ready to play your part, she's coming back."

He looked over at Zaalbar. "About that lifedebt thing, want a chance to pay it off?"

Zaalbar growled something.

"That's a no I take it?"

"Quite stalling, boss. You're a much smaller target than Zaalbar, now get out there and go fetch me a rancor."

He edged through the doorway and took a look. Mission pointed out where she had planted the mines and then gave him a little shove forwards. _This isn't so bad_ , Carth thought as he stepped forwards and raised a blaster. _Stand at the edge of the mines, shoot the big scaly creature, shoot the big scaly creature with the really big claws, the really big sharp claws, shoot it and then run for it. Go on shoot. Come on Carth, it can't make it through the door so I can escape anytime as long as I'm fast enough ... shoot already. Hrm. Crap, it's looking over my way. Nice rancor._

Carth took careful aim at the creature's eye and shot. It shrugged off his shot, and then turned and roared once before coming charging at him. It hit the mines and stumbled for moment before continuing. _Should have used more mines_.

"Start running!" Consu called out from the doorway where she and the others were firing through it at the beast. "I think it's almost dead."

_So am I_ , Carth thought as he zigzagged across the rubbish filled floor.

"There it goes," Consu said a few minutes later as it toppled over. "You can relax now, boss." The whine of a blaster sounded and she ducked around the corner. "Or maybe not."

Carth dove for the floor and tried to spot where the shots were coming from. "Vulkars, so much for this entrance being unguarded."

"There's only a couple," Consu said as they took out the gang members. "I hope they were too surprised to sound an alarm."

"If they did get off an alarm we would have a couple dozen of those bantha brains here by now," Mission said as she tinkered with the door controls. "Alright, we're in. Time for team sneaky to do our thing."

"Keep your comms open," Consu said as she and Mission stepped into the lift. "We'll give a shout if we run into trouble."

Carth looked at Zaalbar when they were left alone. "You know, as I was running from the rancor I was thinking that those bowcaster shots of yours were probably the only thing standing between me and a gruesome death ..."

Zaalbar rumbled a reply and shook his head.

"... so I guess the lifedebt's still on? Alright then, I'm not sure how I'll sneak you on to my next ship, but then, I'm not sure I'll survive long enough to get another assignment, so there's no reason to worry about it."

Zaalbar put his bowcaster away and knelt to go through his pack.

"So, what do you want to do to pass the time? Know any good jokes?"

Zaalbar pulled out a pazaak deck from his pack. Carth eyed it warily. "You're a card shark, aren't you? I'll just bet you are." Zaalbar held out his hands and looked downcast. "Fine, we can play, but if I lose all my credits you'll have to pay my bills. I'm pretty sure that lifedebt thing means you can't let me starve to death."

Two hundred credits down later Carth was looking at a seventeen hand and mulling over his next move. Zaalbar growled. Carth looked up. "Don't rush me." Zaalbar looked up at the ceiling and whined. "Fine, hit me," Carth said and covered his eyes. He groaned when Zaalbar huffed with laughter. Another fifty credits lost.

The comm pinged, and Carth pounced on it. "Consu?" he asked. "What's happening?"

"It's all good, boss. We had a little spot of trouble at the end, but we've got the swoop thing, plus a few bonus goods."

"A little trouble my butt," Mission cut in. "She tried to betray the Beks to the Vulkars!"

"I did not!" Consu said. "Give me my comm back. It was just a ruse and it worked didn't it?"

"Only because I blew up Kandon's gunmen before you could sell us out!"

Carth winced and looked at Zaalbar who just shrugged. "Okay, so where are you?"

"Back in the Lower City," Consu said. "We went out the front door. It's a real stirred up kinrath nest in there, though. You two will be better off coming back through the sewers. We'll meet up at the Beks."

The comm went silent. Carth stared down at it for a moment before looking over at Zaalbar and giving him a weak grin. "It's just you and me then. I hope you know where we're going, because I am completely lost."

Zaalbar huffed and started trotting down the corridor. Carth hurried to follow him, feeling both guilty and relieved he wasn't on point anymore. Fortunately, the rakghouls were either afraid of Zaalbar or didn't think he looked tasty, and they were only attacked by a couple of ragged stragglers as they travelled back through the sewers.

"Maybe there's a reason the rakghouls have left us alone," Carth said as they passed more than one grouping of dead ghouls on their way back to the lift out of the Undercity.

Zaalbar halted and then pulled Carth up a half-collapsed wall. He looked down and spotted an ongoing battle down below. "Exchange boys from the looks of it. Why is everyone trying to cash in on the Endar Spire pods? We sent people down, not valuables or republic secrets."

Zaalbar motioned back the way they came and looked questioningly at Carth. "Yeah, I get it. The Exchange is run by a bunch of crooks and slavers. Definitely people I'd rather fight than help," Carth said. "I really wish I could let the rakghouls take them out, but even they don't deserve to be eaten or mutated. You with me?"

Zaalbar looked up, shrugged and then brandished his vibroblades and charged at the pack surrounding the Exchange men. "Not so fast!" Carth shouted as he followed and tried to keep the ghouls off Zaalbar's back. Although they didn't really seem to bother him, Carth guessed Zaalbar was the reason Mission didn't worry much about rakghouls. _Was that Canderous Ordo? Frak, this is just not my day_.

"Don't thank me for saving your life, Mandalorian" Carth said as he slipped his blaster back into its holster once the fight was over. "I was just killing rakghouls."

Canderous huffed. "My life did not need saving," he gestured at the small group of scared looking men huddled around the corpses. "You may have saved the lives of some of these kids Davik has me babysitting, though."

Zaalbar came over, still brandishing his vibroblades and roared something. Canderous stepped up to him. "Yeah, so what? Someone dumb enough to get in debt to the Exchange deserves to get what's coming to him."

"Does everyone know Wookiee, but me?" Carth asked. "Zaalbar, now is not the time for a discussion on morals," Carth said. "Or someone's lack of morals."

"At least I kept my boys alive," Canderous said. "You've lost your partner, and would probably be dead yourself if you hadn't stumbled across this Wookiee."

Zaalbar started talking, gesturing excitedly at times. Canderous gave out a little grunt. "Rancor, huh? Maybe you are good for more than just flying ships, Onasi."

Carth coughed. _Okay, he knows who I am. Ignore it? Try to pretend I didn't hear him? Oh yeah, that one. He owes me, whether he admits or not. Onasi who?_ He started backing away and then pointed towards the lift upstairs. "Well, I don't know about you guys, but I've got to get going. Don't let the rakghouls bite."

Zaalbar cuffed him on the back of his head. "Ouch! I thought it was funny."


	7. A Day at the Races or Swooping is Bad

Consu grabbed Carth by the arm as soon as he and Zaalbar walked into the Hidden Beks hideout. "You will not believe what these demented nerf-brains want me to do."

"Right now, I don't care," Carth said as he shrugged her hand off his arm and pointed towards the showers. "I am going to have a shower, a decent meal, and then at least eight hours of sleep."

"But," Consu said as she trailed after him. "They want me to fly in that Swoop Race!"

"You? Why you?" Carth said as he stopped walking. "I'm a pilot! I'd love nothing better than testing that swoop accelerator out on a real track."

"I don't know!" Consu said. "The Beks are being completely unreasonable: 'Carth can't fly, they'll recognize him'. 'The Vulkars will never let a hotshot Republic pilot in the race.' 'Do you want the Vulkars to have **two** Republic officers in custody?'

"Crap, that does make sense," Carth said and then frowned. "I could try a disguise but they usually do a DNA scan on racers to avoid ringers. The Beks are right, I'd never get through security. Can't one of the Beks do it? If it's about money I can get the Republic to pay them a reward for Bastila's return once this blockade is broken."

She waved a hand in dismissal. "The Beks are all afraid of this prototype swoop thing. It could fizzle out and blow up on the track. I've got news for them, I don't wanna get blown up either."

A small crowd of Beks had gathered around Carth and Consu as she griped about the race. Eventually Gadon came over to join them. The crowd parted to let him through and he stood before Carth with an irritated look on his face. "Back from the Undercity, I smell."

Carth pinched the bridge of his nose. "Yeah, it was fun. I did not need to come back to this. I thought when we found that prototype swoop engine accelerator for you that would be it. You Beks use it to win the race and Bastila gets rescued."

"I already went over this with her," Gadon said, pointing at Consu who gave a little shrug.

"Go over it again," Carth said. "I don't see the problem, that swoop accelerator was yours, you were going to use it to win the race, Brejik stole it for his Vulkars, we stole it back, and now you can use it in the race as planned."

Consu nudged him. "The Beks would rather see me go out in a big spectacular explosion than one of them."

"That pretty much sums it up," Gadon said with a nod. "It seems to me that if you people really want your officer back you'll take a chance on using the prototype accelerator. It's not a big risk."

"Excuse me," Carth said. "Isn't control of the Lower City hinging on who wins this race?"

"My people have a chance of winning on their own," Gadon said. "The swoop engine accelerator will **guarantee** a win for you. So, I'm betting you guys want to rescue Bastila more than we want to run the Lower City."

"Well, you lose that bet," Consu said. "We'll see who wins Bastila, and then rescue her from them."

"No we won't, that's far too risky," Carth said. "Look, Consu, I can make it an order if I have to."

"You can't order me to commit suicide."

"There's only a very small chance of it being suicide," Gadon said as he held up his hand with his thumb and forefinger millimetres apart. "Besides, think about it, you've been damn lucky the Sith haven't sniffed out your Bastila yet; I guess none of their intelligence types are into the Races. Do you want to wager all the Sith watching the Race Broadcast miss seeing her on display?"

She snapped her fingers. "I bet Mission would love to race!"

"No," Carth said at the same time as Gadon did.

"Zaalbar?"

Carth and Gadon looked at each other. Gadon shook his head. "I've seen Zaalbar ride, it's not pretty."

"Fine," she said and then turned and stomped away "I better have one hell of a recommendation put in my file for this one, boss!

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Carth paced the floor, keeping one eye on the holoscreen the Beks were all crowded around, and another eye on the rowdy Beks. They were having a grand time; you'd never know the future of the Hidden Beks was riding on the outcome of the race. Not to mention the future of the galaxy, but Carth was the only one here who knew how important Bastila was. The snacks and drinks had been brought out over an hour before the Broadcast started and half of the Beks were blitzed already. He scowled when the announcers panned lovingly over the prizes on display. Was there really a reason to angle the camera on **that** part of Bastila? He took his mini-viewer and replayed the shot again, cursing when he zoomed in on the Bastila's neck.

"Problem?" Mission asked, standing on tip-toes and peeking at his viewer.

"Yeah, looks like they've put a neural disruptor on Bastila," Carth said.

"Why would they do that?" Mission said. "Does she have mental powers? Wait, is she a Jedi? She is, isn't she? Ooh, I'll bet she's the one the Sith have been tearing the planet apart looking for. Does Gadon know?"

Carth looked up a roomful of Beks, most of them were watching the Broadcast, but more than a few of them were watching him and Mission. "He does **now**."

"Everybody shut up, Jedi or not it doesn't matter anymore," Gadon said. "The first heat's starting."

"Yeah!" Mission said after Consu finished her first swoop run and pumped her fist in the air. "That's a winning time, that is."

A few minutes later there was a collective groan from the Beks as a Vulkar beat Consu's time.

"Well, that was a winning time," Mission said. "Dratted Vulkar, I'll bet he cheated, somehow."

Carth looked over at Mission. "Er, actually it's Consu who's cheating."

"He's cheating more!" Mission said. "She's just going to have to beat his furry ass on her next heat."

Just then Carth's comm pinged. "Hey, boss," Consu said.

Carth went off to the side to talk to her. Gadon followed him.

"I thought racers weren't allowed to use comms," Carth said.

"Yeah, well, we are once we're done racing."

"She's not done," Gadon said. "You gonna let the Vulkars win the race? This is your only chance to rescue your friend."

"Let one of your remaining riders take that deathtrap out," Consu said. "I've already signed out of the race."

"No, no, no, no," Carth moaned.

"Articulate as ever, boss. Look, that prototype is just not safe. I swear I could feel that thing just begging to give out through every stretch of the track. I was lucky enough to finish one run, I am not tempting fate again."

He held out the comm at arm length and stared at is as though he could will the last couple of minutes to have not happened. "Is is too late to put me in the race?"

"It's too late for all us," Gadon said. "Damn you Republics for screwing this up."

"Us?" Carth said. "Con's right, one of your boys could still take that bike out."

"Not after your girl's been whining about how dangerous it is."

His comm crackled. "Look boss, it's not over yet ..."

"You'll get back in the race?" Carth asked.

"Hmm, no. I wasn't kidding about the deathtrap thing. I think I can get close enough to your girlfriend to place a tracker on her. Be ready to move once this thing's over."

Carth winced when the comm went silent. "Like there's any chance the Vulkars won't sweep Bastila for bugs."

"You could get lucky, the Vulkars are downright stupid sometimes. I, on the other hand, am well and truly screwed unless one of my racers pulls off a miracle."

The Beks were talking among themselves. "Gadon!' one of the called out. "Did that Republic schutta really quit on us?"

Gadon's scowl was answer enough. As one the Beks turned to glare at Carth. He put up his hands in surrender. "Hey, I'm more upset than you guys."

One of the Beks threw an empty bottle at Carth. He ducked and it shattered against the wall behind him.

"None of that," Gadon said. "Beks are above petty acts of revenge. Besides, what were we thinking putting our trust in outsiders?"

"Hey!" Carth said. "It's not our fault your prototype was a piece of junk!"

Gadon sighed. "Now is not the time to throw blame around. Just be prepared for the Vulkars to win this one."

"Even that Bastila agrees with us. Check out the corner cam - see? She is looking royally pissed off."

"What?" Carth said. He elbowed his way through the crowed to get a better view of the screen. Consu was walking away from Bastila's cage, and Bastila did look angry. "She shouldn't even be aware of anything ... whoa. Tell me she didn't just out herself as a Jedi on a **live** broadcast."

Mission squealed from somewhere behind Carth. "She just blew the door off her cage with her mind! This is so cool. Zaalbar? Where are you Zaalbar? Get over here, you don't want to miss seeing how a Jedi fights."

"Oooh," a Bek said. "A knee right to the nuts. Jedi fight pretty much like any of us would."

"Where's Consu?" Carth asked as he stared at the screen and watched Bastila snatch a vibroblade from one of her capturers and brace herself to fight off half a dozen other Vulkars.

"She ran off with the rest of the herd," one of the Beks said. "Guess there's a reason the Republic's losing the war."

'We are not losing," Carth said.

"She didn't run off," Mission said. She put a hand on Carth's shoulder and pointed with the other. "See? She went across the tracks and up into the rafters. Must have brought her holdout blaster through security. It's hard to tell but I think that Vulkar on the left just went down to one of her shots."

"Damn, they've spotted her," Carth said as two of the Vulkars peeled off Bastila and headed towards Consu.

"Nice shooting!" Mission said as first one Vulkar than the other went down.

"Frak me, Brejik's got the Jedi on the defensive," a Bek said. "He must be hopped up on half a dozen stims."

"Or she's not much of a Jedi."

"Bastila's doing damn well for someone who's been a prisoner for over two weeks," Carth said. "They probably kept her half starved and drugged up the whole time."

"Not to mention that neural inhibitor," Mission added. "Ouch, bet that one hurt. Count one more Vulkar out of the fight."

"And there goes the last one except for Brejik."

Bastila stumbled and fell back as Brejik advanced on her. He raised his vibroblade and grinned. "Get up Jedi! Nail that Hutt-kisser to the floor!" the Beks yelled in encouragement.

"This isn't a sporting ring," Carth said and then turned away from the screen.

"Hah! Got him," Mission said as cheers erupted in the audience. "You can look now, Carth. Consu hit Brejik in the shoulder and that gave Bastila the opening to take out Brejik."

"Oh, good," Carth said.

"Turn up the sound, I want to hear what the Republics are saying."

"... rescued myself," Bastila's voice boomed out. "You were just going to leave me to rot!"

"Someone's not happy," Mission said.

"Oh look, it's Carth's other half," Consu said as she knelt by the bodies. "Duty, duty, duty, die for the Republic, pfft."

Carth covered his face with one hand. "She's looting the bodies. On a live broadcast."

A Bek shrugged. "Everyone does it."

"Leave the dead alone," Bastila said. "We have to ..." she stopped and looked directly at the camera and then waved a hand. The screen went blank.

"Alright, the show's over," Gadon said. He stood up and whistled to get everyone's attention. "Time to start Operation Scatter."

"Aaah, why worry? With Brejik dead the Vulkars won't have the nerve to come after us," a Bek said.

Gadon stared him down. "No, but the Sith will. You want to wait around for them to come asking questions about that Jedi? Speaking of which; it sure would have been nice if **someone** had mentioned Bastila was a Jedi."

"Let it go, Gadon," Zaerdra said as she came up beside Gadon. "We did stick them with that unstable swoop engine accelerator." She put her hands on her hips and bellowed. "Drinks down and brains on, people, it's time to move."

The Beks scrambled as they rushed around loading boxes on to a couple of lifters and leaving the hideout in groups of three or four.

"Wow," said Carth when he looked around an almost deserted building a scant twenty minutes later. "They can really move. Aren't you going with them Mission? Zaalbar?"

Mission looked up from the couch where she was munching on some left-over snacks. "Nah, Zaalbar's stuck with you and I'm staying with him. Besides, it's kind of fun hanging out with you guys."

"You should ..." Carth said. _She should what? Go live with a hunted gang? Or try living on the streets alone? What if the Sith find us? What if the Sith find Mission alone, or the Exchange does, or some Vulkar out for blood. Fine, she stays here_. "Alright, you can stay. But there will be rules, young lady."

Mission narrowed her eyes. "You're kidding."

"Feet off the table, kid."

She laughed. "Yeah, right."


End file.
